Martin Luther King Tourney Tip's OFF

The Junior Celtics made their debut on the hardcourt of East Central High School this morning. Three young scholar athletes, representing Kelley, Jenks & Holland Hall had their first taste of playing as a Celtic. C.J. Sidorakis (Jenks), Chaqquelle Quinn (Holland Hall) & Cale Hammond (Bishop Kelley) competed and mixed smoothly with "veteran" Celtics Jarred Wise (Union), Price Pinkerton (Cascia Hall) and Brock Morton (Holland Hall). The six man roster battled a tough and talented Owasso Ram team which featured Bontrager, Hightower & #25 who had a very impressive game to lead the Rams.

In the 2nd half, with the Junior Celtics holding a 39-31 lead, a power surge knocked out the electricity for a split second and because most of the lights were the old time Halogen style, we incurred about a 10 minute TIMEOUT. About 8 minutes remained on the clock.

It allowed us to regroup, talk about what needed to happen, and with input from the team, we decided to try a triangle and two defense. The halftimes at the Hardwood tournaments are 3 minutes long. The LIGHTS delay was almost three times that. Although some call the triangle and two a "gimmick" defense, the Celtics have utilized it successfully over the years to nullify opponents that were hurting us.

When the LIGHTS come back on:
We talked about how critical the first two minutes were going to be; an opportunity for the KNOCKOUT punch would occur, or we could resolve ourselves to keep plugging along, and allow Owasso to stay in the game until the last two minutes.

After the long break, we came out with a vengeance. C.J. & Price manned up on #25 and Hightower, and the "gimmick" defense did it's job. We figuratively "TURNED OFF" Owasso's lights and blew them out of the gym. It was a total team effort, and everyone scored.

C.J. scored from inside and out while crashing the boards hard; Brock nailed five three pointers and played point guard without making a turnover. Price hit a 3-pointer, made some great drives and added some creative passing; Cale hit a 3 pointer, played solid defense and improved as the game went on. Jarred plugged up the middle, had a batch of rebounds and consistently scored. Chaqquelle scored several times, pulled down 6 rebounds and gained lots of valuable experience.

FINAL SCORE :
Junior Celtics 68
Owasso Rams 37

The jr. Celtics advance to the next round of the winner's bracket and play an early 8 a.m. game at the East Central gymnasium. I strongly urged the six jr. Celtics to abide by the "lights out no later than 3:15 a.m. curfew" since we are meeting at 7:25 a.m. to get ready for the next game.I look forward to coaching this group tomorrow, and expect a successful day of games.